During his interview with local broadcaster CNN News 18 on April 5, this year, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India would enter Pakistan to kill anyone who escapes over the border af­ter trying to carry out terrorist activities in the country.

The Guardian reported on April 4, 2024: “Interviews with intelligence officials in both countries, as well as docu­ments shared by Pakistani investiga­tors, shed new light on how India’s for­eign intelligence agency began to carry out assassinations abroad as part of an emboldened approach to nation­al security after 2019. The Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) is directly con­trolled by the office of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who is run­ning for a third term in office in elec­tions later this month”.

It further reported: “India has also been accused publicly by Washing­ton and Ottawa of involvement in the murders of dissident figures includ­ing a Sikh activist in Canada and of a botched assassination attempt on an­other Sikh in the US last year…The fresh claims relate to almost 20 killings since 2020, carried out by unknown gunmen in Pakistan…This is the first time Indian intelligence personnel have discussed the operations in Pakistan, and de­tailed documentation has been seen…RAW’s direct involvement in the assas­sinations…According to the evidence gathered by Pakistan, the killings were regularly coordinated out of the UAE, where RAW established sleeper cells that would separately arrange differ­ent parts of the operation and recruit the killers…The rise in killings in 2023 was credited to the increased activi­ty of these cells, which are paying mil­lions of rupees to local criminals to car­ry out the assassinations. Indian agents also recruited jihadists to carry out the shootings, making them believe they were killing “infidels” …Millions of ru­pees were then paid to Afghan nation­als to carry out the shooting in Karachi in March 2022. They fled over the bor­der but their handlers were later arrest­ed by Pakistani security agencies”.

The next day, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced “provocative remarks” made by Indian Defence Min­ister Rajnath Singh, saying “India’s as­sertion of its preparedness to extra-judi­cially execute more civilians, arbitrarily pronounced as ‘terrorists’, inside Paki­stan constitutes a clear admission of cul­pability…Pakistan stands resolute in its intent and ability to safeguard its sover­eignty against any act of aggression”.

In fact, the BJP won the general elec­tions of 2014 and 2019 on the basis of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan slo­gans. Therefore, since Narendra Modi, the fanatic leader of the biased ruling party BJP, became Indian prime minis­ter; he has been implementing the ide­ology of Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism) by persecuting the Muslims and cre­ating war-hysteria among the Hindus against Pakistan.

In this regard, the Modi-led BJP gov­ernment can go to any extent to win the general elections to be held in 2024.

In the recent past, the false flag opera­tion staged by India to achieve multiple objectives, especially to divert global at­tention from human rights violations in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) blamed Pakistan for terrorism there.

Once again, India wants to recreate the Pulwama drama to obtain political goals. Global media reports also confirmed that Indian forces are spreading terror­ism along the Line of Control (LoC) to achieve political ambitions.

Indian media also suggest that the Modi government is trying to disrupt the ceasefire agreement on the LoC. Tension escalated rapidly between New Delhi and Islamabad in the after­math of the false flag Pulwama terror attack in the IIOJK—when on Febru­ary 27, 2019, in response to the Indi­an so-called pre-emptive air strike near the town of Balakot, close to the bor­der with Pakistan’s sector of Kashmir, which resulted into no causalities, Pak­istan Air Force shot down two Indian Air Force fighter jets and launched aer­ial strikes at six targets in the IIOJK.

Notably, Satya Pal Malik, ex-gover­nor of IIOJK had stated that Modi al­lowed the Pulwama incident of Febru­ary 2019 to happen—he was privy to the impending attack. Hence Modi’s in­volvement is vivid.

On August 5, 2019, the Modi-led gov­ernment abrogated articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution, which gave a special status to the IIOJK. New Delhi bifurcat­ed Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to be ruled by the federal gov­ernment. On the same day, a strict mili­tary lockdown was imposed in the IIOJK which continues unabated.

Besides Pakistan, China also reject­ed the Indian malicious acts as “unlaw­ful and void”, saying that India’s decision to “include” some of China’s territory into its administrative jurisdiction “chal­lenged” Beijing’s sovereignty.

Similarly, drastic tensions arose be­tween New Delhi and Beijing on May 5, 2021, when India occupied various ar­eas, adjacent to the Line of Actual Con­trol (LAC). In response, Chinese forces moved into the regions along the east­ern Ladakh border and vacated the dis­puted territories.

It is mentionable that a US intelligence report, entitled ‘The Global Trends’, re­leased on April 7, 2020, warned that “nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan might engage in a large-scale war unwittingly…Miscalculation by both governments could prompt a breakdown in the deterrence that has restricted conflict.”

It is noteworthy that BJP leader Dr. Subramaniam Swami had stated that In­dia needed only two years to defeat Pak­istan militarily, and the only solution for Kashmir was war, as “there is no peace”.

Pakistan’s civil and military lead­ers have repeatedly indicated that In­dia is planning another false flag opera­tion against Pakistan in order to divert attention from its internal issues and from the failure of its external policy with the real aim of winning the general elections in 2024. They have frequently stated that Pakistan’s armed forces “are ready to respond to any Indian aggres­sion with full might.

Nonetheless, clouds of nuclear war are hovering over South Asia where Mo­di’s risky strategy of conducting another false flag operation inside the Pakistani side of Kashmir by ignoring the doctrine of nuclear deterrence could result in a full-scale conventional war with Paki­stan, which may culminate in an atom­ic war, enveloping the entire region and probably the whole world.

Sajjad Shaukat
The writer focuses on international affairs and is the author of the book, “US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations”. He can be reached at sajjad_logic@yahoo.com